Kid-safety advocate slipped up in own school

After a Walden West employee last spring was charged with trading in child pornography and molesting a child, parents across the valley recoiled in horror. Then many took out their fury against their own principals and school boards, which had contracted to send classes to the popular environmental education camp.

One of the few to address the Santa Clara County Board of Education, whose office of education runs the camp, was Danni Tsai.

What’s been done, she asked the board on June 10, to ensure such abuse doesn’t reoccur? For that, she won a spot on the office of education’s Walden West Task Force, comparing the camp’s policies with best practices.

Now we wonder: What did Tsai learn about kid safety in schools? As superintendent-principal of Spark Charter School in Sunnyvale, Tsai failed HR 101, as Superintendent Jon Gundry termed it: to fingerprint her employees, to file TB test results and even to check teachers’ credentials. That came to light after Spark aide Jonathan Chow, 18, was charged with possessing child pornography and molesting an 8-year-old student.

So the county office of education — whose feet Tsai was holding to the fire just three months ago — threatened to yank Spark’s charter if it didn’t immediately suspend operations until it put its paperwork in order.

As for accountability and transparency, well, Tsai has refused to answer questions from the press. After multiple tries, someone answering her cell phone hung up on IA. Instead, bewildered Spark board members — who should have been in the loop — issued muddled statements and partial explanations. And oddly, Tsai jumped the gun by telling parents that the county office of education had OK’d reopening school, when office officials said they hadn’t. (Spark did reopen on Friday.)

Granted, Tsai just began as Spark’s first-year principal. But she’s no newcomer to education. She’s worked 13 years as a teacher and 18 years as an administrator, and has taught and trained educators.

What’s being done to protect students at Spark? With Tsai cowering, the public won’t know.